President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during a regular meeting of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief’s Headquarters, spoke about the key issues that were put forward for discussion. The central topic was strengthening the country’s air defense and reviewing approaches to the distribution of military personnel between units. He reported the details in his evening address.
The head of state emphasized that increasing the efficiency of the air defense forces remains a priority. He stressed the importance of stable financing of interceptors, increasing their production, and constant coordination with international partners.
“First, air defense and everything that is necessary for the daily shooting down of Russian missiles and drones. The financing of interceptors, the volume of production, agreements with our partners – everything is under regular control of the Ministry of Defense and the military command, and production must be increased as much as possible”, – Zelensky said.
A special emphasis was placed during the meeting on short- and medium-range air defense systems. Zelenskyy clarified that such systems are necessary both for the front line and for the protection of energy infrastructure:
“This is what is needed both for the front line and for the protection of energy facilities. We have updated the needs, and we will increase production accordingly. Ukrainian production is a guarantee of protection, Ukrainians should not depend on whether something can be found on the world market or in the warehouses of partners. Production tasks must be completed on time, personal responsibility for this at all levels”.
The meeting also considered appeals from military units that the president received during a trip to combat areas. Among them, the issue of more uniform staffing of brigades stands out.
Zelensky reported:
“One of such requests is a fair distribution of personnel between brigades. The replenishment of brigades with people should be reviewed, of course. This is being talked about in almost every combat brigade, and now there is an instruction from the General Staff to work all this out with the Chief of the General Staff, Andriy Hnatov, together with Pavlo Palisa, deputy head of the OPU and a very experienced military man. Draft decisions should be prepared for me in the near future”.
